Sports Then and Now

Wrestling is a highly popular American show. It’s a huge industry which involves special TV and radio programs, magazines, websites. At the center of the US wrestling world is WWF (World Wrestling Federation), the giant monopoly. There are also numerous small independent organizations, schools, fan clubs. Every week tens of millions people around the globe watch wrestling TV shows.

The most successful businessman and founder of WWE is Vince McMahon. He made a fortune on the method of pay-per-view which in the early 1980s, only gained a bit in popularity when showing football matches and boxing matches. The audience was associated with a television provider, and to view sport matches you needed to buy a one-time subscription. The right to view Wrestlemania only a few thousand people have bought in 1985. But by the time of Wrestlemania-III after two years the number of subscribers has increased to 400 thousand. This, one show brought to the company of McMahon more than $ 10 million.

The next two Wrestlemania in 1988 and 1989 were held at the same arena – in the Hall of Atlantic City meetings, close to the famous casino Trump Plaza.

To promote the event organizers said that the venue of the competition is the gambling establishment itself. But that was only a trick to attract more people.

The history of this show dates back to mass entertainments of 19th century. Wrestling we know today was formed in 1970s. Since that time it had ups and downs, but in the second half of the 90s wrestling experienced enormous popularity growth. Read the rest of this entry →